Houston

We just got back back from a very, very quick road trip to Houston so the babies could meet their great grandparents, Papa and Pamma Parker, and their great-great grandma Parker (my grandpa's mom).

We left Thursday afternoon and made it to Texarkana in pretty good time, despite hitting Memphis during rush hour and running into a couple nasty storms. When we stay in hotels on the road we choose places that have kitchens and separate living/sleeping rooms for logistical reasons. We lucked out when we chose the Residence Inn in Texarkana-  Our room was HUGE and the boys loved running off steam in the living room before a very late bedtime. 

On Friday we were up and on the road by 10 am for what was supposed to be a short 5 hour drive to Houston. 8 1/2 hours later, we arrived at the hotel- exhausted, grumpy, and so, so done with being in the car (all 5 of us, but especially mom and dad!). We were plagued by one thing after another- steady heavy rain the entire drive, a 5 mile-long traffic jam that took 3 HOURS to drive 3 miles and ended with us driving through about 12-18 inches of water that had flooded the highway, a stop at a gas station where we unknowingly drove into another 2 foot puddle of water, only to find out the gas station was closed, hellacious rush hour Houston traffic, bad GPS directions that surely added more time on to our drive, and culminated with our check engine light coming in moments before we pulled into the hotel. I fed the boys cold bottles in their car seats while Will pumped gas, and they were fed more bribe, please-keep-quiet puffs than I care to admit. It's safe to say that Will and I were not in good spirits by the time we got unloaded at the hotel. We had hoped to have the whole afternoon to spend with my grandparents and instead we spent the majority of the day ready to pull out hair out. Thankfully Grandpa, Pamma, and my parents were game for hanging out at the hotel because I couldn't subject the babies to anymore car time. They brought Italian food to our room and got to spend a little bit of time meeting the boys before we put them to bed. 

No kidding...

That shouldn't be a river

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The line of traffic on the other side of the road was just as long

FINALLY!!! Meeting great Papa and Pamma

Thankfully the rest of the weekend was nice and uneventfully relaxing! We spent Saturday afternoon at my grandparents' where we introduced the boys to their great-great grandma and took them in the pool that I spent many, many summers in for their first swim ever. Griffin LOVED every second of being in the water and happily splashed and laughed the whole time. Cooper was a little more reserved but warmed up quickly, and Will was probably the least into it. He never cried, though, and by the end was all smiles, too. So happy that we have water babies! We're looking forward to lots of pool days this summer. We ended our Saturday with dinner at the family staple, Los Tios, where the boys enjoyed being passed around and the adults enjoyed several rounds of margaritas. 

Big shoes to fill

Checking out their new Texas boots!

Will is normally pretty shy around new people, but he seemed to warm right up to Grandma

All smiles in the pool

Happy kiddo who refused to keep his hat on

Cooper liked it, but his hands stayed pretty frozen in place

I think Griffin was longing to go back in

Los Tios

 And just like that- Sunday came and it was time for us to hit the road. We stopped by Grandpa and Pamma's for a quick goodbye and then headed out. Thankfully the trip home was long, but easy. The boys were troopers and didn't seem to mind being on the road again, so we opted to drive straight through instead of stopping for the night. We got home around 2:00 AM, let the boys run around for a bit, and had them in bed by 3:00 AM in hopes of having a normal day today. We really are lucky to have such great travelers!